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In case you haven't heard Microsoft have REDUCED the price of their home videogame console the X-Box, just 1 MONTH after its initial release. The X-Box, previously tagged with an RRP of £300 will now sell for £200. While this might be good news for the consumers, or moreso their wallets, it could send the X-Box to an early grave.
The X-Box was launched on March 14th, and as I said earlier, with the hefty price-tag of £300. Now, while that isn't much for the most powerful video games console around, it is too much when you can get a brand new PS2 with MGS2, an Extra Pad, a Memory Card and GTA 3 for the same price! Added to which, Nintendo's GameCube will be released in exactly 2 weeks time at an even cheaper price of £169.99.
So, Microsoft decide that to shift X-Boxes, they're going to have to do something about the fact that you can get a BRAND NEW Nintendo console, with games that sport equally impressive graphics for little over half the price - And the fact that you can get the most popular Under-The-TV games console, with the two best selling games to-date, an extra pad AND a memory card. So what do you do? Reduce your console's RRP?! Microsoft seem to think so!
But this could tarnish the X-Box's reputation in a number of ways:
1. Consumer Perception of Quality - If, after just a month of going on sale, Microsoft decide to reduce the price of the X-Box, which they have, consumers have to wonder what's wrong with it. Only love is free in this world... not a thrid of an X-Box? What gives? It must be the quality... maybe they're prone to crashing... maybe they just suck... either way, it doesn't take a modern-day Einstein to speculate why Microsoft did what it did!
2. Consumer Perception of Pleasure - Maybe it's because the games are too expensive for what they are... after all, 3 of them are graphical updates of popular Dreamcast games which didn't live up to their legacy, the rest of them, with the exception of HALO, are quickly thought up 'basic games', which only have a few million polygons, some nice textures and impressive frame-rates to their name. If the games suck, people won't buy them...
These two are the biggest ways in which Microsoft could be hit.
While Microsoft might make a few more sales with the lower-price tag, there will be a lot of people who take the two aformentioned hiccups to heart and forget the console altogether. Plus, Microsoft have tried to reimburse consumers who purchased the X-Box at £300 by giving them 2 games and a free controller... but what if they've bought all the games... and what if they bought 3 extra controllers... there WILL BE people in that situation!
I just don't see how this will have helped... the PS2 has been at £199 for ages (Oct 2001), and has recently been blessed with a Platinum Range.. if this hasn't lost MS sales then the GameCube is £30 cheaper, with cheaper games which are actually BETTER than the VERY high majority of X-Box games. Microsoft are just digging themselves deeper into their hole. There isn't the demand for a Games PC... Children want GameCubes, Teenagers want Cubes and PS2's. 18-30's, predominantly want PS2's and older families want GameCubes. I'm not saying there is NO demand for X-Box... but it's flunked in Japan, BIG TIME, and sales in Europe have been below expectancy.
Microsoft should have thought-out their strategy, and stuck with it... as it happens, their plan is changing like the weather, and it's this weathering that's corroding the foundations of the X-Box's future.
It isn't a bad console, and if I had the money, I MIGHT buy one... but Microsoft have messed this one up, big time. They're aiming the X-Box at 25-35-Year-Olds who can afford an Extra £100, so they don't need to drop the price... the only thing it'll have done, is make people think that it's only as good as the PS2, and that it's going to start making crapper games and become commoners muck!
Maybe it's just me... but I think Microsoft have really messed up in the UK.
The X-Box was launched on March 14th, and as I said earlier, with the hefty price-tag of £300. Now, while that isn't much for the most powerful video games console around, it is too much when you can get a brand new PS2 with MGS2, an Extra Pad, a Memory Card and GTA 3 for the same price! Added to which, Nintendo's GameCube will be released in exactly 2 weeks time at an even cheaper price of £169.99.
So, Microsoft decide that to shift X-Boxes, they're going to have to do something about the fact that you can get a BRAND NEW Nintendo console, with games that sport equally impressive graphics for little over half the price - And the fact that you can get the most popular Under-The-TV games console, with the two best selling games to-date, an extra pad AND a memory card. So what do you do? Reduce your console's RRP?! Microsoft seem to think so!
But this could tarnish the X-Box's reputation in a number of ways:
1. Consumer Perception of Quality - If, after just a month of going on sale, Microsoft decide to reduce the price of the X-Box, which they have, consumers have to wonder what's wrong with it. Only love is free in this world... not a thrid of an X-Box? What gives? It must be the quality... maybe they're prone to crashing... maybe they just suck... either way, it doesn't take a modern-day Einstein to speculate why Microsoft did what it did!
2. Consumer Perception of Pleasure - Maybe it's because the games are too expensive for what they are... after all, 3 of them are graphical updates of popular Dreamcast games which didn't live up to their legacy, the rest of them, with the exception of HALO, are quickly thought up 'basic games', which only have a few million polygons, some nice textures and impressive frame-rates to their name. If the games suck, people won't buy them...
These two are the biggest ways in which Microsoft could be hit.
While Microsoft might make a few more sales with the lower-price tag, there will be a lot of people who take the two aformentioned hiccups to heart and forget the console altogether. Plus, Microsoft have tried to reimburse consumers who purchased the X-Box at £300 by giving them 2 games and a free controller... but what if they've bought all the games... and what if they bought 3 extra controllers... there WILL BE people in that situation!
I just don't see how this will have helped... the PS2 has been at £199 for ages (Oct 2001), and has recently been blessed with a Platinum Range.. if this hasn't lost MS sales then the GameCube is £30 cheaper, with cheaper games which are actually BETTER than the VERY high majority of X-Box games. Microsoft are just digging themselves deeper into their hole. There isn't the demand for a Games PC... Children want GameCubes, Teenagers want Cubes and PS2's. 18-30's, predominantly want PS2's and older families want GameCubes. I'm not saying there is NO demand for X-Box... but it's flunked in Japan, BIG TIME, and sales in Europe have been below expectancy.
Microsoft should have thought-out their strategy, and stuck with it... as it happens, their plan is changing like the weather, and it's this weathering that's corroding the foundations of the X-Box's future.
It isn't a bad console, and if I had the money, I MIGHT buy one... but Microsoft have messed this one up, big time. They're aiming the X-Box at 25-35-Year-Olds who can afford an Extra £100, so they don't need to drop the price... the only thing it'll have done, is make people think that it's only as good as the PS2, and that it's going to start making crapper games and become commoners muck!
Maybe it's just me... but I think Microsoft have really messed up in the UK.
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Following your argument, Game, the N64 was probably the biggest disaster of gaming- dropping £100 in price within 2 weeks of launch...
Whereas Ninty gave gamers who bought at the high price a free game (that Ninty picked from a list of their worst selling games), MS is giving people 2 free games and an extra controller...
Surely they're doing a better job dealing with low sales than Ninty did with the N64? At least they've got a steady flow of games!
Whereas Ninty gave gamers who bought at the high price a free game (that Ninty picked from a list of their worst selling games), MS is giving people 2 free games and an extra controller...
Surely they're doing a better job dealing with low sales than Ninty did with the N64? At least they've got a steady flow of games!
Well, it's not a bad idea in the sense that Microsoft will surely now find they are selling a lot more consoles than before!
But it does also show that they haven't done as well as they would've at first hoped, so they had to reduce the price to increase sales.
I'm sure it'll really start to sell well now, I know that including myself, there are quite a few people on these forums that were intending to buy an X-box for a lower cost, before the inevitable happened surprisingly early.
But such a sudden and early drop does say bad things, just like Nintendo did with the N64, also after a month on the UK market.
But this time it's different. Bill Gates has decided that every gamer who's already brought one for £300 is entitled to 2 free games and a free official pad. Isn't that nice! So that adds another plus onto their reputation.
But it does also show that they haven't done as well as they would've at first hoped, so they had to reduce the price to increase sales.
I'm sure it'll really start to sell well now, I know that including myself, there are quite a few people on these forums that were intending to buy an X-box for a lower cost, before the inevitable happened surprisingly early.
But such a sudden and early drop does say bad things, just like Nintendo did with the N64, also after a month on the UK market.
But this time it's different. Bill Gates has decided that every gamer who's already brought one for £300 is entitled to 2 free games and a free official pad. Isn't that nice! So that adds another plus onto their reputation.
What do you mean "only as good as the PS2" ?!?!
I think it's clear from Microsoft's drastic action that they outpriced themselves from the market, as a consequence they have picked up a slight tarnish to their reputation.
"Only love is free
> in this world..." "they just suck.." "Perception of Pleasure" "quickly
> thought up 'basic games'" "aformentioned hiccups"
Clearly you're on a completely different wavelength to the rest of us. Some subliminal messages coming through that post there Mr The Game.
Clearly it's a good idea to drop the price of the X Box, but naturally Microsoft wouldn't have had to do this had they achieved enough sales in the first place.
I don't think X Box's image will be tarnished, I'm off to eat a turnip, but I will return to disagree with your sentiments further.
As for the free love? I don't think you know what you're doing here.
Go eat some fruit young man.
:)
> in this world..." "they just suck.." "Perception of Pleasure" "quickly
> thought up 'basic games'" "aformentioned hiccups"
Clearly you're on a completely different wavelength to the rest of us. Some subliminal messages coming through that post there Mr The Game.
Clearly it's a good idea to drop the price of the X Box, but naturally Microsoft wouldn't have had to do this had they achieved enough sales in the first place.
I don't think X Box's image will be tarnished, I'm off to eat a turnip, but I will return to disagree with your sentiments further.
As for the free love? I don't think you know what you're doing here.
Go eat some fruit young man.
:)
I mean look at this:
http://195.216.17.32/banners/xbox_down_in_price.gif
It makes the X-Box look like some sort of End-Of-Line joke...
Microsoft will lose more custom than they'll gain by making the X-Box appear to be of a lower-quality than it was a month ago.
http://195.216.17.32/banners/xbox_down_in_price.gif
It makes the X-Box look like some sort of End-Of-Line joke...
Microsoft will lose more custom than they'll gain by making the X-Box appear to be of a lower-quality than it was a month ago.
In case you haven't heard Microsoft have REDUCED the price of their home videogame console the X-Box, just 1 MONTH after its initial release. The X-Box, previously tagged with an RRP of £300 will now sell for £200. While this might be good news for the consumers, or moreso their wallets, it could send the X-Box to an early grave.
The X-Box was launched on March 14th, and as I said earlier, with the hefty price-tag of £300. Now, while that isn't much for the most powerful video games console around, it is too much when you can get a brand new PS2 with MGS2, an Extra Pad, a Memory Card and GTA 3 for the same price! Added to which, Nintendo's GameCube will be released in exactly 2 weeks time at an even cheaper price of £169.99.
So, Microsoft decide that to shift X-Boxes, they're going to have to do something about the fact that you can get a BRAND NEW Nintendo console, with games that sport equally impressive graphics for little over half the price - And the fact that you can get the most popular Under-The-TV games console, with the two best selling games to-date, an extra pad AND a memory card. So what do you do? Reduce your console's RRP?! Microsoft seem to think so!
But this could tarnish the X-Box's reputation in a number of ways:
1. Consumer Perception of Quality - If, after just a month of going on sale, Microsoft decide to reduce the price of the X-Box, which they have, consumers have to wonder what's wrong with it. Only love is free in this world... not a thrid of an X-Box? What gives? It must be the quality... maybe they're prone to crashing... maybe they just suck... either way, it doesn't take a modern-day Einstein to speculate why Microsoft did what it did!
2. Consumer Perception of Pleasure - Maybe it's because the games are too expensive for what they are... after all, 3 of them are graphical updates of popular Dreamcast games which didn't live up to their legacy, the rest of them, with the exception of HALO, are quickly thought up 'basic games', which only have a few million polygons, some nice textures and impressive frame-rates to their name. If the games suck, people won't buy them...
These two are the biggest ways in which Microsoft could be hit.
While Microsoft might make a few more sales with the lower-price tag, there will be a lot of people who take the two aformentioned hiccups to heart and forget the console altogether. Plus, Microsoft have tried to reimburse consumers who purchased the X-Box at £300 by giving them 2 games and a free controller... but what if they've bought all the games... and what if they bought 3 extra controllers... there WILL BE people in that situation!
I just don't see how this will have helped... the PS2 has been at £199 for ages (Oct 2001), and has recently been blessed with a Platinum Range.. if this hasn't lost MS sales then the GameCube is £30 cheaper, with cheaper games which are actually BETTER than the VERY high majority of X-Box games. Microsoft are just digging themselves deeper into their hole. There isn't the demand for a Games PC... Children want GameCubes, Teenagers want Cubes and PS2's. 18-30's, predominantly want PS2's and older families want GameCubes. I'm not saying there is NO demand for X-Box... but it's flunked in Japan, BIG TIME, and sales in Europe have been below expectancy.
Microsoft should have thought-out their strategy, and stuck with it... as it happens, their plan is changing like the weather, and it's this weathering that's corroding the foundations of the X-Box's future.
It isn't a bad console, and if I had the money, I MIGHT buy one... but Microsoft have messed this one up, big time. They're aiming the X-Box at 25-35-Year-Olds who can afford an Extra £100, so they don't need to drop the price... the only thing it'll have done, is make people think that it's only as good as the PS2, and that it's going to start making crapper games and become commoners muck!
Maybe it's just me... but I think Microsoft have really messed up in the UK.
The X-Box was launched on March 14th, and as I said earlier, with the hefty price-tag of £300. Now, while that isn't much for the most powerful video games console around, it is too much when you can get a brand new PS2 with MGS2, an Extra Pad, a Memory Card and GTA 3 for the same price! Added to which, Nintendo's GameCube will be released in exactly 2 weeks time at an even cheaper price of £169.99.
So, Microsoft decide that to shift X-Boxes, they're going to have to do something about the fact that you can get a BRAND NEW Nintendo console, with games that sport equally impressive graphics for little over half the price - And the fact that you can get the most popular Under-The-TV games console, with the two best selling games to-date, an extra pad AND a memory card. So what do you do? Reduce your console's RRP?! Microsoft seem to think so!
But this could tarnish the X-Box's reputation in a number of ways:
1. Consumer Perception of Quality - If, after just a month of going on sale, Microsoft decide to reduce the price of the X-Box, which they have, consumers have to wonder what's wrong with it. Only love is free in this world... not a thrid of an X-Box? What gives? It must be the quality... maybe they're prone to crashing... maybe they just suck... either way, it doesn't take a modern-day Einstein to speculate why Microsoft did what it did!
2. Consumer Perception of Pleasure - Maybe it's because the games are too expensive for what they are... after all, 3 of them are graphical updates of popular Dreamcast games which didn't live up to their legacy, the rest of them, with the exception of HALO, are quickly thought up 'basic games', which only have a few million polygons, some nice textures and impressive frame-rates to their name. If the games suck, people won't buy them...
These two are the biggest ways in which Microsoft could be hit.
While Microsoft might make a few more sales with the lower-price tag, there will be a lot of people who take the two aformentioned hiccups to heart and forget the console altogether. Plus, Microsoft have tried to reimburse consumers who purchased the X-Box at £300 by giving them 2 games and a free controller... but what if they've bought all the games... and what if they bought 3 extra controllers... there WILL BE people in that situation!
I just don't see how this will have helped... the PS2 has been at £199 for ages (Oct 2001), and has recently been blessed with a Platinum Range.. if this hasn't lost MS sales then the GameCube is £30 cheaper, with cheaper games which are actually BETTER than the VERY high majority of X-Box games. Microsoft are just digging themselves deeper into their hole. There isn't the demand for a Games PC... Children want GameCubes, Teenagers want Cubes and PS2's. 18-30's, predominantly want PS2's and older families want GameCubes. I'm not saying there is NO demand for X-Box... but it's flunked in Japan, BIG TIME, and sales in Europe have been below expectancy.
Microsoft should have thought-out their strategy, and stuck with it... as it happens, their plan is changing like the weather, and it's this weathering that's corroding the foundations of the X-Box's future.
It isn't a bad console, and if I had the money, I MIGHT buy one... but Microsoft have messed this one up, big time. They're aiming the X-Box at 25-35-Year-Olds who can afford an Extra £100, so they don't need to drop the price... the only thing it'll have done, is make people think that it's only as good as the PS2, and that it's going to start making crapper games and become commoners muck!
Maybe it's just me... but I think Microsoft have really messed up in the UK.
Page: